Obama to announce rare earth trade case against China

Obama to announce rare earth trade case against China


Obama is set to make an announcement.

He will initiating a "trade suit" against China over those essential rare earth elements.

Rare Earth elements are materials used to manufacture high tech products.

It seems China has been placing restrictions on those things.
(probably an effort to raise prices)


By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 0:06 EDT
The Raw Story

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama will Tuesday announce a new trade suit against China prompted by Beijing’s restrictions on the export of rare earth materials used in manufacturing high-tech products.

A senior White House official said on condition of anonymity that the United States would bring the case at the World Trade Organization with the European Union and Japan, in a new sign of election-year trade tensions with Beijing.

China is the world’s largest producer of rare earths — 17 elements critical to manufacturing a range of high-tech products from iPods to missiles — and its moves to dictate production and exports have raised a global outcry.

Critics say Beijing’s strategy is aimed at driving up global prices of the metals and forcing foreign firms to relocate to the vast emerging nation to access them.

But Beijing says the restrictions are necessary to conserve the highly sought natural resource, limit harm to the environment from excessive mining and meet domestic demand.

See you in Court !

About time, China has been playing this game for at least 2 years.

Seems that they are happy to be a WTO member but not play by the rules and, by and large, they have been allowed to get away with it despite the damage done to our economies as a result.

Boy, what a smart move. Piss off the main lenders that's keeping your country afloat. www.cbsnews.com...

reply to post by xuenchen


10 bucks says Obama will apologise, give up Wyoming to China, and blame Bush.

Seriously, I am doubtful on Obama's foreign relation skills.

Obama will be the first to blink, but then play it as a victory!
(Yay! They let us keep Cheyenne and Laramie!)

Hopefully China retaliates by taking Obama to trial for war crimes.

reply to post by BigBruddah


***Groan....***

Glad to see intelligent discourse if back on the menu, ATS. Well done!

China has the right to restrict export of any of its natural minerals and resources as it sees fit, I hope the Chinese retaliate as harshly as possible.

Wow..... He has a Nobel Peace Prize. I propose our President for the Day Late and Dollar Short Award.

I'm sorry, but this is a laugh or cry moment. To use one more saying, that horse is so far out of the barn at this point , the poor thing died of old age and made it's last ride to the glue factory. There isn't much LEFT to complain about AT THIS POINT, but then maybe that was the point. Get the political benefit claim for "doing" something but only after it's "something" that won't DO anything.

China's been actively buying up, contracting into and intimidating control of the Earth's rare deposits for years now..and the game's about over. Another complete and total SNAFU brought to us by Bush and Obama together. We couldn't have seen it without the best efforts of them both.

reply to post by Justwork



Not in the manner they are doing so and not when they are member of the WTO which gives them unrestricted access to our markets when they don't allow the same!

Go and read up on this next time.

Originally posted by stumason
reply to post by Justwork

 

Not in the manner they are doing so and not when they are member of the WTO which gives them unrestricted access to our markets when they don't allow the same!

Go and read up on this next time.

To be honest, if we were abiding by WTO rules the US would have been hauled in over the illegal and crushing trade embargo it has held against Cuba for decades, but since nobody is dealing with that, I see no reason why China should acquiesce.

reply to post by Justwork


Well, true enough, but there are issues with Cuba in the WTO anyway which provide for a valid reason for tarriffs or embargos, namely the State control of almost the entire economy. China is different and it is only because of the liberalisation of their Economy they were actually allowed into the WTO in the first place.

Isn't there a shed load of this stuff in Uganda, coincidentally where Kony is hiding? Or am I imagining that? Lithium is it?

Gah, off to duckduckgo I shall go to answer my own question.

reply to post by BigBruddah


They wouldn't take Bush so what makes you think they'd take Obama?

Seriously folks, try and concentrate on the subject at hand before you turn it in into an Obama-bashing #fest like every other thread.

Let's share this with all of Obama's green energy advocates who have been creeping around the threads here lately defending the collapse of the solar companies who received govt. handouts. Our govt knew all about the Rare Earth market dominated and manipulated by China when the checks were written to Solyndra et.al.

Why is Obama playing this card now? Day late and a dollar short... China has been ramping up for years and now controls 97% of the rare earths. China also has $34 billion to hand out from the China Development Bank. We cannot compete with that. Although Obama likes to think that he can...

Proper planning prevents piss poor performance..... Drill Drill Drill you moron (obama) Actually, Obama plans to drill in Africa not America. He's gotta kick it back to his Kenyan Luo tribes people!!

WTO website - Dispute section

WTO disputes happen more often than people think.

Originally posted by stumason
reply to post by Justwork

 

Well, true enough, but there are issues with Cuba in the WTO anyway which provide for a valid reason for tarriffs or embargos, namely the State control of almost the entire economy. China is different and it is only because of the liberalisation of their Economy they were actually allowed into the WTO in the first place.

State control or not, Cuba is a sovereign state and has the right to use any form of government it chooses, this does not justify the embargo that causes extreme hardship to the Cubans on a daily basis.

China, and the rest of the world, needs to tell the US under no uncertain terms to eff off, mind it's own business and conduct its implosion quietly.

So why is Obama getting his panties all in a twist over China's threat to restrict global access to their rare earth's ?

Didn't we have a report back in October of last year (2011) of potential MASSIVE untapped deposits of these same rare earth's over in US occupied ... errr, liberated .... Afghanistan ?

Vast deposits of rare earth elements and critical minerals found in Afghanistan by U.S. geologists under military cover could solve world shortages.

Source: Scientific American


According to a recent study released by the US Geological Survey, Afghanistan may be home to massive rare earth element deposits containing about 1.5 million metric tons worth of rare earth material.
By the USGS’s estimates, Afghanistan’s rare earth element reserves could amount to up to $1 trillion worth of the precious materials.

Source: Inquisitr

Just continue occupying ... errr, liberating .... the country for another 10 - 20 years and in the meantime get American companies setup to extract this "treasure". Of course, all the while "compensating" the Afghanies for the privilege and giving the Chinese the "finger" !

reply to post by tauristercus


Afghanistan has been in negotiations with China to help develop those discoveries if I remember right. I will try and find the article and post it when I get a chance.

Originally posted by Xcathdra
reply to post by tauristercus

 

Afghanistan has been in negotiations with China to help develop those discoveries if I remember right. I will try and find the article and post it when I get a chance.

That is what i remember. They got the bids for the mining and the US was apparently just going to buy it off the market and let China do the work.

oops.

Just to point this out so we can move beyond the America Sucks crowd in this thread. The European Union and Japan are also a part of that dispute with the same issues the US has.

The embargo on Cuba has absolutely nothing to do with the WTO or even this topic.

Also the US and Japan has developed new technology that allows them to pull the elements out the ground where before it was not possible.